POSSIBLE IMPOSSIBILITIES
Lesson 1: Tuesday, July 12, 9:45-10:15
POSSIBLE IMPOSSIBILITIES
“It is impossible to live a sexually pure life as a Christian today.” With a limited view of history, one could easily say that this is a problem that followers of God have more than ever before. But it doesn’t take a whole lot of study of the Bible to find that this single problem has snared more who would follow Him than any other problem of sin.
The lure of homosexual sin that seems so prevalent today, especially in light of so many “LBGT” issues that have demanded our attention lately, is unfortunately nothing new. God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for a sin He described as an abomination to Him.
In Genesis 18:20, God said that “the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I will go down now and see…” We know from Abraham’s pleading that not ten righteous people could be found in all the city. Some liberal theologians have suggested that the sin of Sodom was inhospitality. It does not take much imagination, however, upon reading Gen 19:5 to realize the depravity that the angels were there to examine: “(the men of the city, both old and young) called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.” The NIV says, “so that we can have sex with them.” For these sins, God destroyed the plains of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from heaven.
As followers of the Word of God we do not have to apologize that God created sex for a relationship between one man and one woman. We do not have to cower because our culture demands that we tolerate behavior as acceptable that God does not. Scripture is clear that this problem has always plagued man. Even David, “a man after God’s own heart,” fell to the lure of this temptation with Bathseba. He looked upon her taking a bath on the roof, called for her, had sex with her and then, to cover up his sin, had her husband killed. This sin, which Nathan revealed to him had “despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight.” (2 Sam 12:9) Because of this sexual sin, God promised that the sword would never leave David’s house, that his illegitimate son would die and that he would be publicly punished. God demands sexual purity from his followers!
The New Testament Christians were anything but immune from this type of temptation. Paul had to warn the early church constantly to “flee from sexual immorality.” He instructs the Corinthian church in 1 Cor 3:16 “…you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. The temple of God is Holy, which temple you are.” In Chapter 5, Paul reveals that in the Corinthian church there is “sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as s not even named among the Gentiles – that a man has his father’s wife!” He tells them in verse 11 to “not keep company with anyone NAMED A BROTHER, who is sexually immoral…not to even eat with such a person.” God considers sexual sin so serious that in one instance, Paul instructed the church to throw the person out of the church, turn him over to the devil so that he might be saved, even if only by fire! God treats sexual sin very seriously. Yet, we still have this problem in our day and culture.
We constantly hear of pastors and preachers who cheat on their wives and sleep with other women in the church. In one church of 10,000 members, the pastor destroyed the church when he declared his homosexual sin with another man. One very well known pastor left his wife and married the organist of the church and still preaches today.
The depravity of sexual sin knows no satisfaction. It is not uncommon for Christians in our culture to accept sex before marriage, multiple marriages and divorces, living together before marriage and having children outside of marriage. These sins are rampant in our culture. And if we are to believe statistics, they are just as prevalent inside the church as outside! And the world would accuse the church of being hateful and threaten it legally if we do not accept those sins that God calls abominable. God demands sexual purity in the Old Testament, in the New Testament and in our culture and every other culture today. He calls the act of sex between one man and one woman a HOLY THING and when we treat it as unholy, we stand in danger of great pain and misery and possibly, ultimate judgment.
Because sexual sin is so common, predictable and practically socially acceptable, it is easy for Christians to claim that a life of sexual purity is impossible. Nothing could be further from the truth of the Bible than that claim however. The Scriptures before the one about the body being the temple of God proclaim God’s standards of sexual purity for all His followers: (1 Cor 6:13-18) “…Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For ‘the two,’ He says, ‘shall become one flesh.’ But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirt with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.”
Christian, it is NOT too hard a thing to do to be sexually pure! God would not demand it if it were impossible. Maintaining sexual purity is a possible impossibility. It may be hard, but it is not impossible. I would suggest that you consider these three steps toward maintaining sexual purity in your life.
STEP 1: Agree with God about what is right and what is wrong. The Bible is pretty clear about God’s direction that sex be within the bounds of one man and one woman IN MARRIAGE. He does not make exceptions to that. Neither should we. As long as we try to make exceptions to this, we cannot begin to measure up to God’s standards and best for us. Yes, we should love everyone, even if they agree with this standard. But God leaves no room for us to compromise His standards just to accommodate immorality in our society. God’s standards for sexual purity are very clear in the Bible. We need to agree with those standards, accept them as our own and make no exceptions where He has not made exceptions.
STEP 2: We need to deny ourselves. Self-denial is a doctrine rarely found preached in the modern church. It isn’t popular to tell ourselves “no” to the things God tells us are wrong. We live in a permissive society which not only allows immorality but also encourages it and criticizes and condemns those who would disagree. Once we agree with God that sexual immorality is wrong, we definitely need to say no to it! We need to deny ourselves the right to pursue what might “feel good” for a season but what God says will ultimately bring our ruin. Jesus instructed those of us who would want to be His disciples, “if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.”
As much as we don’t like it, self denial is supposed to be a common discipline in every Christian’s life. When we are tempted to lust after a member of the opposite sex, God wants us to say “no” to that desire. When our boyfriend or girlfriend wants to have sex outside of marriage, we are to say “no”. Without an action of the will on our part to resist sin, we make it impossible for the Lord to do what is only possible through Him in our life. Victory over temptation never comes without first acknowledging our weakness and susceptibility to sin and choosing to resist it. Scripture clearly teaches that we are to resist the devil. “Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
STEP 3: Plug into the power. “I find it so hard to resist temptation! I have failed so many times! I just can’t do it!” You are not the first person to say those things. Paul recognized, as he described in Romans 7 that the things he knew to do, those he couldn’t do; and those things he knew he shouldn’t, those he was always doing. It is only in Romans 8 where Paul reveals the secret to victory over that defeated kind of life. “There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.” We are totally, utterly useless in overcoming all temptations without the power of the Holy Spirit! With that power, we can do ALL THINGS through Jesus Christ who strengthens me!
I do not like modern translations that have cut the last half of Romans 8:1 off. Yes, some state that it talks about walking in the Spirit later in the chapter. But I have heard way too many sermons telling me that if I am in Christ Jesus, I am not condemned, with absolutely no reference to the supreme need to walk in the Spirit if I am to succeed. Meanwhile, we continue to have Christians wondering why they are so powerless to overcome the temptations that the world and our culture offer so abundantly. They may have agreed that sexual immorality is wrong. They may have even chosen to say “no” to the temptation. But, without the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit that we can choose to daily walk in, we will continue to be defeated by sin! “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you…he will quicken your mortal body by his Spirit who dwells in you.”
God wants victorious followers who daily have victory over sin. He wants young people who wait until they get married to live together and enjoy the closeness of sex. He wants young men and women who, when they see the suggestive magazines or come across movies or TV programs with strong sexual content, choose to turn the other way. He wants us all as Christians to stand for what is right even when the world attacks us for it. The impossibility of sexual purity is possible when we agree with God about what is right and wrong, when we deny ourselves the right to pursue our own fleshly lusts and when we plug into the power of the Holy Spirit by walking with Him every day! God is still making the impossible possible in our lives when we truly commit to Him.
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